Martin it's an ARE, got it off CL in May. Bought the windoor separate from suburban toppers though so far just the driver's side, $250 each for those. how much weight can you put on a rack? I want to do a RTT, and have a design for one that isn't supported by the topper, more like one of those lumber things. I almost squished a fiberglass topper on our last taco, bringing some deck lumber home from the depot...

Mike I like your black rims on your 80 a lot.. have really thought of doing that on my 80 too. Still not sure what's best on the Taco here, will let it ride with silver for a while. and yeah we'll see how it all looks when I get a different bumper on there.

Martin it's an ARE, got it off CL in May. Bought the windoor separate from suburban toppers though so far just the driver's side, $250 each for those. how much weight can you put on a rack? I want to do a RTT, and have a design for one that isn't supported by the topper, more like one of those lumber things. I almost squished a fiberglass topper on our last taco, bringing some deck lumber home from the depot...

Mike I like your black rims on your 80 a lot.. have really thought of doing that on my 80 too. Still not sure what's best on the Taco here, will let it ride with silver for a while. and yeah we'll see how it all looks when I get a different bumper on there.

The ARE toppers are supposed to have a high weight capacity and several people on ExPo have been running them with RTT's. I was asking Kurt from Cruiser Outfitters about it and he concurred. There is a big difference in stationary vs moving load, so a topper that can take a 200Lb moving load will be plenty strong to hold a tent and couple of people while parked. I'm going to get there "track system" which will let me add as many Yakima load bars as I see fit (3). I'll let you know how it works.

Also, when I called suburban topper this week, they quoted me $110 per side for the windoors.

The ARE toppers are supposed to have a high weight capacity and several people on ExPo have been running them with RTT's. I was asking Kurt from Cruiser Outfitters about it and he concurred. There is a big difference in stationary vs moving load, so a topper that can take a 200Lb moving load will be plenty strong to hold a tent and couple of people while parked. I'm going to get there "track system" which will let me add as many Yakima load bars as I see fit (3). I'll let you know how it works.

Also, when I called suburban topper this week, they quoted me $110 per side for the windoors.

Seriously? I would be psyched to skip the whole rack thing and just do Yakima bars.. I have bought those tracks before from Rocky Mounts in Boulder. And I think I've got enough towers & bars around.. is that a windoor price because you're buying a new topper and you just choose that window as an upgrade? That would make sense, but both times I've bought a replacement after the fact it was more like $250. I do still want a DS...

I've seen a few running RTT's on a fiberglass shell - especially the smaller and lighter models. But you might see the sides of the shell flex, as well as the bedsides, over the long term. I'd prefer a steel rack myself, but realize that it $$.

I think that "HMR" on Expo has a Maggiolina mounted to his shell - that would be one example you could look into.

I've seen a few running RTT's on a fiberglass shell - especially the smaller and lighter models. But you might see the sides of the shell flex, as well as the bedsides, over the long term. I'd prefer a steel rack myself, but realize that it $$.

I think that "HMR" on Expo has a Maggiolina mounted to his shell - that would be one example you could look into.

A Maggiolina is a lot heavier than my ARB tent plus the tents that open "like a book" and have a ladder, distribute some of the weight off the top. I think my tent weighs less than 100Lb, so I'm not worried about it stressing the top. I thought about an external rack of some sort, but Kim doesn't want it looking like a contractors rig.

I poked around Expedition Portal last night and found one guy who say his fiberglass cracking, another who said just a topper was causing the bed to spread. I've been working on an idea for an external frame that hopefully won't look like a contractor, but the dilemma is how to get it sturdy enough to not flex or move, yet keep it sleek enough to not just be a contractor ladder rack. The other downside to those is how far out they stick, when I had a 2wd Taco I had one and was always catching my hip on it.

My other thought is just scrap that idea, and instead do an internal support cage of some type-so you've got a couple bars below the rack rails, and some legs that run down to the wheel wells/truck bed? In that situation your topper isn't really doing anything other than acting like a fiberglass washer for your RTT support system, and keeping the load from swaying side to side.... but all the load is transferred down to the truck bed. I kind of like this idea better.